OREANDA-NEWS. RusHydro’s largest hydroelectric power plant – Sayano-Shushenskaya – increased its maximum capacity output by 250 MW to 5,100 MW. The capacity expansion was approved by the System Operator after a second high-voltage transmission line connecting power systems of Khakassia and Krasnoyark region had been commissioned.

Previously, the maximum capacity output from the station was raised from 4,400 to 4,850 MW following the modernization of automatic reliability system installed at the station. As a result, in 2015, Sayano-Shushenskaya released 700 MW of ‘locked’ capacity, which is comparable to a single hydropower unit of the power plant of 640 MW.

Until 2015, the maximum plant’s available capacity was limited to just 4,400 MW of the total 6,400 MW installed. This was caused by lack of interconnection capacity in the region, stemming from unfulfilled Soviet plans to develop new industrial facilities in the region. This resulted in 2,000 MW of ‘locked’ capacity of the Sayano-Shushenskaya, and output restrictions during some high-water years.